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UNION AND SLAVERY. 



thanksctIYInCt sermon, 



DELIVERED IN THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 



Clarksville, Tennessee, Not ember 28t!i, 1S50. 



BY J. T. HENDRICK, PASTOR 



PRINTED BY C. O. FAXON 



CLARKSVILLE, TZNTNESSKE 



1851 



— -n^^ 
iQ 



^^' 



Clarestillk, Nov. 29, 1850. 
Rev. J. T. Hexdrick, 
Dear Sir: — 

Being delighted with your sermon on Thanksgiving Day, 
and the highly patriotic sentiments so eloquently advanced and en- 
forced, we beg leave to ask the favor of you to furnish a copy of it 
for publication, at as earl> a day as may be convenient to you. 
We remain, verv respectfully, your ob't serv'ts, 

JAMES B. REYNOLDS, 

J. G. HORNBERGER, 

h O. SHACKELFORD, 

A. ROBB, 

E. HOWARD, 

W. B. MUNFORD. 

J. H. PRITCHETT, 

S. SIMPSON, 

W. P. HUME, 

WELLS FOWLER, 

W. F. FALL, 

J. E. FRANKLIN, 

L. P. ROBERTS, 

JOHN McKEAGE. 



Clarksville, Nov. 29, 1850. 
Hon. J. B. Reynolds^ J. G. Hornbergery J. O. Shackelford, A. Robb, 
and others: 

Gentlemen:— 111 compliance with your polite note, I herewith 
submit to you for publication the sermon delivered yesterday, hoping 
you may find it at least scriptural and conservative. 
I am, with great respect, yours &c , 

J; T. HENDRICK. 



A THANKSGIVING SERMON, 



Psalm xcvii, i. "TAe Lord reignetli, let the earth 
rejoice, let the multitude of the isles he glad thereof ^ 

All holy beings in the universe rejoice in the reign of 
God. J heard a great voice in heaven of much people, 
saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth, 
and hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written 
King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. That which causes 
joy and praise throughout all the ranks of hoi} beings in 
heaven, should be a source of joy to all the inhabitants of 
the earth. This would, doubtless, be the case but for the 
entrance of sin into our world. But, sad as the reflection 
may be, the reign of God is not a source of gratitude to 
all the inhabitants of the earth, it is the christian alone 
who rejoices in the divine administration. The great mass 
of mankind look upon the government of God as stern, 
severe, and arbitrary, and would rather rejoice to be cei- 
tain that no God had to do with the affairs of men, that no 
omniscient eye watched over them, that God could be 
banished from the throne of the universe, and they permit- 
ted to follow their own -devices without any reference to 
the judgment seat of Christ. 

We rejoice that the Governor of our State, in common 
with the Governors of several other States, has recognized 
the government of God, and issued a proclamation for a 
day of Thanksgiving throughout this commonwealth. 

In compliance with this recommendation, and in accor- 
dance with our most excellent and venerable standards, 
we observe this day, as a day of thanksgiving. It has 
ever been a most prominent and leading trait in the char- 
acter and history of the Presbyterian Church, that it has 
been a law-abiding church. Hence, in our Directory for 
public worship, written more than two hundred years ago, 



we say, "If at any time the civil power should think ii 
proper to appoint a fast or thanksgiving, it is the duty of 
tiie ministers and people of our communion, as we live 
under a christian government, to pay all due respect to the 
same. Public notice is to be given a convenient time be- 
fore the day of thanksgiving comes, that persons may order 
their temporal affairs, that they may properly attend to the 
duties thereof. On days of thanksgiving the minister is 
to give information respecting the authority and providen- 
ces which call to the observance of them, and to spend a 
more than usual part of the tmie in the giving of thanks, 
agreeably to the occasion, and in singing psalms or hymns 
of praise." Chapt. 14. 

In complying with this injunction of the civil and eccle- 
siastical laws, we shall endeavor to lead your minds to the 
contemplation of some facts in the providence of God to- 
wards our beloved nation, that are of a most striking and 
interesting character. 

1. The text states fully the great truth that God reigns. 
Reason and the light of nature confirm the truth, that none 
but the omnipotent God could reign over such a world 
successfully. God reigns in the natural and moral worlds, 
he reigns in the legislative, judicial, and executive depart- 
ments of all nations. "The Lord is our judge, the Lord 
is our law-giver (or statute maker,) the Lord is our king, 
he will save us." Is. 33, 22. 

The laws of ihe natural world are perfect, and infallible 
in their operations. The regularity and uniformity of the 
laws of nature are such, that the astronomer makes his 
calculations with unerring certainty everi hundreds of 
vears before hand. 'I'he most erratic and apparently un- 
certain of all things in the world are the comets, these 
wayward and astounding visitors of our system, yet such 
is the regularity of their movements, that lialley, and 
others have predicted to the day their return. Relying 
upon the invariable course of nature have all the discoveries 
of natural science been made. God has established certain 
great laws in the natural world by which he rules and con- 



trols all nature, and the wisest men are those who have stu- 
died and found out the character and true operation of these 
laws. The violater of the laws of nature will most cer- 
tainly be punished, while those who obey them shall be 
blessed. It is in the regular operation of these laws that 
God has said "While the earth remaineth seed time and 
harvest, cold and heat, and winter and summer, and day 
and night, shall not cease." Gen. 8, 22. It is as he 
reigns by the operation of these laws, that he gives us rain 
from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with 
food and gladness. If this year has been fruitful, and 
God has given abundance, we are in duty bound to give 
him the gratitude of our hearts, and render thanks for all 
his benefits. He could easily have suspended the laws of 
nature and have withheld from us all the bounties of his 
providence. It is because we are so accustomed to re- 
ceive his blessings, that we often fail to appreciate them. 
Like the Israelites in the wilderness when the manna fell 
around their camps every day for forty years, we come to 
look upon these blessings as a matter of course, and not 
as the special gift of his omnipotent hand. "We condemn 
the Hebrews when we read of their ingratitude, and yet imi- 
tate their example. When the manna first fell around 
them, and they saw abundance of food on the face of the 
desert, gratitude heaved in every bosom, and the bounty 
of God was acknowledged by all. How short a time 
elapsed till this gratitude was turned into apathy and indif- 
ference, and they began to look upon the manna in much 
the same light as we look upon the dews of the evening, 
or crops in the harvest, as something regular and custo- 
mary, the denial of which might justify complaint, but the 
bestowal of which was not reckoned as fitted to call forth 
thankfulness. Because the water flowed with them 
through all their journey, so that the heat of a burning sun 
could not exhale it, nor the thirsting sand of the desert 
drink it up, just because it continued all the time as fresh, 
and as cool, as when it leapt from its parent rock, the 
Israelites came to regard it with as little wonder as we do 

1. 



6 

the stream which may pass our dwelling. The pillar of 
cloud hung continually before them, so that the rays of a 
meridian sun could not dissipate it, nor the winds of 
heaven drive it away; and they came at last to be no 
more grateful for it than we usually are for the light of the 
sun returning every morning. Just because this pillar of 
cloud was kindled into a pillar of fire every night they became 
as familiar with it as v/e are Vv'ilh the stars that God lights 
up in the firmament. The younger portion of the people, 
born in the desert, and long accustomed to these wonders, 
may have come to look upon them as altogether natural, 
and would no more be surprised at the sight of the fiery 
pillar, casting its lurid glare upon the sands, than we are 
with the meteor that flashes across the evening sky. Does 
it not appear that the very frequency of the gift, and the 
regularity of its coming would lead mankind to forget the 
giver? It is as if a gift were left every morning at our 
door, and we at length were to imagine that it came alone 
without being sent. It is as if the widow, whose barrel of 
meal and cruse of oil were blessed by the prophet, had 
come at length to imagine that there was nothing supernat- 
ural in the transaction, just because the barrel of meal 
did not waste, and the cruse of oil did not fail." Will 
any contend that our daily food is less the gift of God 
because it is not sent at random, but in appointed ways 
and at certain seasons, that we may be prepared to receive 
it? Have not all the rich blessing for v»'hich we are called 
upon to-day to give thanks been bestowed by the same 
liberal and bountiful hand that fed Israel in the wilderness, 
and have we not become as insensible to the divine good- 
ness as ever they were? V\'as the water of which Israel 
drank less beneficent because it followed them all the way 
through the wildernsss? No one will affirm that it was; 
and yet there are persons who feel as it they did not re- 
quire to be grateful for the water of which they drink, 
because it comes to them from the clouds of heaven, and 
the fountains that gush from the earth. Brethren, we act 
most unreasonably and ungratefully when we fail to recog- 



riize the hand of God in all our common daily mercies. 
The intimate connection of God with all the works of hia 
hand around us, is a first great christian truth, the direct 
control of all the laws of the physical world by his infinite 
wisdom and unbounded goodness, is the true foundation 
of our confidence in him as the king of the universe, and 
the ground of rejoicing to all saints and angels. 

The moral government of God is equally wise, good, 
and certain in its operations. The moral laws of God are 
the transcript of his own mind and character, and there- 
fore perfect. Whether we contemplate God in his abso- 
lute government of the moral world, or Christ in his 
mediatorial reign, as head over all things for the Church, or 
in his providential dispensation, the same attributes of the 
divine character are manifest. The natural, the moral, 
and spiritual reign of God display a most glorious and 
perfect being, possessed alike of every possible perfection. 
While this is true, "one of the most lamentable proofs of the 
blindness of the human mind spiritually, in an eminently 
learned and great man is found in Humboldt, whose mind 
stored with physical knowledge and human learning, 
should sweep through the visible universe, as on eagle's 
wings, without discovering a God, or, at least, without 
expressing any admiration of his perfections." Too many 
in this day would supplant God by deifying the laws ofiia- 
ture. While the Geologist and the AstrDnomer would 
vainly substitute general laws, these methods of divine 
conduct, for God himself, the true believer would recognize 
that wherever general laws can be discovered, a great law- 
giver must also exist, and these general laws are but the 
ways in which he governs the world whether of matter or 
mind. The laws of God are perfect in their precepts, 
extending to all the affections of the heart, and while they 
teach every duly, they equally condemn every sin. The 
divine laws are likewise perfect in their penalties, self- 
operating, and will follow the violator wherever he may 
go, and thus are infallible in their operation. They are 
also universal and impartial, extending alike to all moral 



8 

agents in the universe. The same law, saying, <*Thou 
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy 
soul, and with all thy mind," that is, love God to the full 
extent of thy powers or capacity, is binding upon Gabriel, 
and every angel in heaven, and passes on down from 
angels to men in all places, limes, and circumstances, and 
from men to devils in hell, and will ever continue to bind 
them to the throne of God and to demand of them perfect 
obedience. 

In the government of God, human agencies, or civil 
governments are included, as second causes by which he 
carries out his purposes, and accomplishes his will. So 
that God does reign in the legislative, judicial, and execu- 
tive departments of civil government in such a sense as to 
accomplish his own will. It is to his overruling hand, 
swaying the destinies of nations, that we ascribe the exis- 
tence of our union. He declares with emphasis, "By me 
Kings reign and princes decree justice.'^ "Blessed be 
God, for wisdom and might are his, and he changeth the 
times, and the seasons; he removeth Kings and setteth up 
Kings, he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to 
them that know understanding. The most high ruleth in the 
kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. He 
doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among 
the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand, 
and say to him what doest thou." The same truth is 
clearly manifest from many facts recorded in scripture. 
He allowed the people to choose Saul King, he then took 
the kingdom from Saul, because of his wickedness, and 
gave it to David. He raised up Absalom to rebel against 
David, and to divide the kingdom. He defeated the coun- 
sel of Ahethophel that most renowned of all the counsellors of 
antiquity. And the same God, we trust, will likewise defeat 
the counsel of all these Southern Ahethophels now consul- 
ting for the division of our Union, and preserve us as he 
did David and his kingdom, from the headlong counsels 
and rashness of the Southern Disunionist, and from the 
fanatical and ruinous measures of the Northern Abolition- 



9 

ists, and those who refuse to submit to the Fugitive Slave 
Law, so just in itself, and so well calculated to restore 
harmony and tranquillity to our divided and distracted 
country. 

II. The general principles of the government of God, 
as above named, have been most strikingly illustrated in 
the establishment and history of our own Republic. The 
special providence of God has been manifest toward our 
nation from the first day that the Pilgrims landed at Ply- 
mouth, 1620, till the present moment. What was it that 
caused England, Scotland, France and Holland to send 
out the noble colonies that first peopled this goodly land? 
The spirit of God stirred up the true principles of civil 
and religious liberty in the hearts of our fathers. The 
persecutions of the old world, like the persecution that 
arose after the death of Stephen to scatter the early dis- 
ciples out to preach the gospel in all the Roman privinces, 
drove our ancestors to seek an asylum of liberty in the 
new world. Who was it that sifted all the nations of the 
old world to select the choice seed to plant this new virgin 
soil, but the God of goodness and of grace? Who was it 
that brought the Puritans to setUe New England, the Dutch 
to settle the Middle States, New York and Pennsylvania, 
and the noble Huguenots from France to settle the more 
southern colonies, but the God of Abraham, of Paul, the 
God of the U'aldenses, the pious witnesses of the dark 
ages, and the God of Luther, ]\Ielancthon and Calvin, the 
God who stirred up the hearts of the Reformers of the 
sixteenth century, the same God who led Luther to find a 
Latin Bible to open his heart, and warm his soul with life 
divine, at the very same time that he led Columbus to 
discover America, the new world, where the true Protest- 
antism, that the word of God caused to spring up in 
Luther's heart, should have its full development, and dis- 
play all its great, elevating influences, to elighten and save 
the world? He, who has ages and centuries in which to 
work, is always accomplishing the most magnificent and 
glorious purposes for the honor of his son, and the good of 



10 

his people. The colonies who first settled in America 
were holy, pious, praying, bible loving men, the son had 
made them free, and they would be free indeed. They 
came not to these wild woods for gain, they came not for 
glory, but under higher, nobler, and purer influences, it 
was for "freedom to worhip God," it was that each man 
might bow down under his own vine and fig-tree, and wor- 
ship the God of the Bible, without one to hurt or make him 
afraid. In the beautiful verses of Mrs. Hemans, 

"What sought they thus afar' 

Bright jewels of the mind'? 
The wealth of seas, the spoils of war? 

Tliey sought a faith's pure shrine! 

Ay, call it holy ground, 

The soil where first they trod, 
They have left unstained what there they found, 

Freedom to icorskip God!'' 

The same kind providence that guided the Mayflower 
over the stormy sea, guided our ship of state through the 
stormy day of the revolution, and led us on to victory 
under our illustrious Joshua, George Washington, the 
patriot, ihe christian, the noble man of nature and of grace, 
the glory of whose name will continue to brighten, and the 
splendor of whose achievements will continue to increase 
as long as the sun and the moon endure. 

Brethren, we are beloved for the Father's sake ; the 
prayers of the noble men who established this govern- 
ment have not yet all been exhausted; many prayers put 
up for this nation and this Union, by the pious pilgrims, and 
the Huguonots, saints who had power with God, are still 
before the throne of God, calling for vengeance upon the 
profane soul who should dare to raise his hand or tongue 
against this Union. This nation cannot be dissolved — it 
was sealed with blood, it was steeped in the prayers of 
God-fearing patriots. God says, "Destroy it not for a 
blessing is in it," "she is beloved for the father's sake." 
God does not work in vain, nor call his children to labor 



11 

for naught; he established this nation fot some great and 
glorious purpose, and by the labours, prayers, the tears, 
and blood of noble men. Think you that he will allow it 
to be destroyed by the folly of fanatics, and misguided 
men? Never shall the nations hear of such a thing. The 
same storm raged at the formation of the federal constitu- 
tion, and the same fate was feared, but he guided us safely 
through, by the same spirit of compromise manifested by 
the noble "committee of thirteen" in the last Congress. 
He has all hearts in his hands, and he seems to have 
led that patriotic committee to the most suitable and sate 
conclusions. This he will ever do in times of great emer- 
gencies. "Man's extremity is God's opportunity'^ is a 
proverb as manifest in the history of our country as in the 
providence of God over his church. The Lord reigneth 
in the councils of our country, let the earth or the people 
of the United States rejoice. 

III. The special providence of God may be seen in the 
existence in our midst of that one institution that has 
caused all the agitation £t the present time. I mean the 
existence of slavery. No truth is clearer to my mind than 
that the hand of God is in all this matter, and that great 
and glorious results will follow from the existence of sla- 
very in the United States. The special providence of God 
is manifest in first allowing them to be brought here, as 
Joseph was taken into Egypt by special design and for wise 
purposes, or as Daniel was taken to Babylon. All hope of 
civilizing and christianizing Africa by white men, and 
white missionaries being cut off, God sent them here to 
become civilized and christianized, that they may take 
back these blessings to their own native land, and thus 
redeem from barbarism and idolatry that long degraded 
quarter of the globe. The number of professing chris- 
tians among the negroes of the South is greater than all 
the converts in all the heathen lands in all the missionary 
stations on the globe combined. Thus more souls will be 
saved by the existence of slavery than has'yet been saved 
by missions. 



12 

An excellent writer says, "It is manifest, that the cir- 
cumstances of slavery, in which Providence has placed 
the negro, are most favorable to his conversion and reli- 
gious enjoyment. This position is abundantly corroborated 
by facts, for out of three millions of slaves in this country, 
at least a half a million — one in every six — are professors 
of religion, which is a proportion greater than can be found 
in any other class of mankind, where the profession of 
religion is a voluntary thing on the part of individuals. 
And not only so, but it is another remarkable fact, that 
there are more professions of religion, three to one, among 
the slaves in America, than in all heathen countries put 
together. The number of evangelical missionaries in 
different parts of the world is only 1450. The number of 
church members in heathen lands, including the colonists, 
which, I presume, constitute a large majority of ihe whole, 
together with the families of missionaries, is only 190,623, 
whereas there are not less than six hundred thousand 
professing christians among the slaves in this country. — 
How amazing and how gracious the overruling providence 
of God, in making use of the slave trade, as a means, 
indirectly, of saving more souls than all the combined 
missionary operations of all Christendom, within the last 
three hundred years, thereby bringing good out of evil — 
turning the cause into a blessing — and causing the wrath 
of man to praise him." 

But look at the colony of Liberia, one of the most flour* 
ishing and promising Republics on the globe; modled 
after our own government, colonized from the free negroes 
of this country, and flourishing far beyond any of the first 
American colonies, and exerting an influence upon Africa 
greater than all the world besides. Having some three 
hundred miles of coast free from the slave trade, having 
under her 6000 inhabitants, more than 80,000 of the native 
population, and by degrees giving laws to all the neigh- 
boring nations. Liberia is this day doing more for Africa 
than all other nations combined. Is not the hand of God 
in all this? 



13 

IV. The point to which we invite your special attention 
is, that the doctrines and principles of the abolitionists are 
diametrically opposed to all the teaching of the Bible, and 
the facts of history. They will not commune with us as 
christians, they tell our servants when they escape from us 
to go on to Canada, or to hide in Ohio, and refuse us that 
justice secured by the terms of our constitution. All this 
we hold to be unscriptural, unchristian, unbrotherly, 
unjust, and unmanly. 

1. The Bible is the oldest book in the world, and con- 
sequently carries us back many hundred years before even 
Homer or Hesiod, or Heroditus the father of history. 

The intoxication of Noah gave occasion for one of the 
most remarkable declarations in regard to slavery 
in the Bible. The truth of this prophecy is now manifest 
in the existence of slavery in the United States. "And 
Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger 
son had done unto him. And he said, cursed be Canaan; 
a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And 
he said blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan 
shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he 
shall dwell in ihe tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his 
servant." Gen. 9, 24 — 27. This is the first account of 
slavery after the flood, and the truth of this declaration is 
now witnessed daily in the United States. That this was 
the native land of the Indians or the Sliemltes, called ''the 
tents of Shem,^^ none can deny. That the whites of this 
country are Japhethites enlarged or spread out from Eu- 
rope to settle this land is equally clear, and that the negroes, 
our servants, are Hamites, or Africans, all admit. The 
only question is as to the certainty of the Indians being of 
Asiatic origin or Sheinites; this has been so abundantly 
established by Judge Haywood, in his "History of Tennes- 
see," that we shall refer you to that able work and omit 
further evidence. 

Then, while the United States shall exist, composed of 
people from Europe and England, and we shall dwell in 
America, "the tenis of Shem," the place where the Indians 

2 



14 

spread their tents originally, and the negroes are our ser- 
vants, we shall have a standing proof that the word of God 
is true, and that slavery was entailed as a curse upon the 
Africans for the sin of their father Ham, as guilt has 
been entailed upon the race of Adam for his transgression. 
The facts in both cases are unquestionable. This is the 
starting point of slavery, and from this fountain have 
flowed all the curses and evils that have been connected 
with it. This is one of the most remarkable passages in 
the word of God. It is a standing miracle, like the exis- 
tence of the Jews as a separate nation, to prove the truth 
of the Bible. It stands out in bold relief upon the page of 
Holy Writ and in the living characters of White and 
Black that walk daily in our midst upon American soil. 
It is a daily rebuke to infidelity on the one side, and aboli- 
tionism on the other. It is the justice of God showing his 
hatred of sin, and he will so overrule this wrath of man 
as to make it praise him. Great good to the world shall 
be the final result however numerous the evils and suffer- 
ings connected with it. All slavery then is the result of 
sin; all slavery resulted from loar, debt, or cri?ne originally. 
There was no slave in the garden of Eden, there would 
have been none had man continued in his primeval holi- 
ness. When Cain became a vagabond he became a slave, 
yea when Adam hid from God amid the trees of the gar- 
den, a servile fear, the feeling of guilt and degradation 
ruled his heart. Then after the'flood it prevailed more fully 
in the family of Ham, and extended over the whole world. 

"Proud Nimrod first the bloody chase began, 

A mighty hunter, and his prey was man.'' — Pope. 

I. The oldest book in the Bible, is, probably, the book of 
Job, which takes us back to the earliest ages of the post- 
deluvian patriarchs. Now it is a remarkable fact, that 
throughout all the ages' of the Patriarchs, the days of 
primitive simplicity, when society was least artificial, that 
slavery existed of the very same character as that of the 
present day. The servants of Job are named over and 



15 

again as "a very great household." Then in chapt. 7, 2, 
the difference between a hired servant and a slave or bond 
servant, is given most forcibly and clearly in these words, 
♦'As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as a hire- 
ling looketh for the reward of his work." Here the one 
expected nothing but the rest of the night, while the other 
looked for his wages. But what makes the matter so cleajr 
and unequivocal is, that in the original two words are used 
which are invariable in their meaning. Ehed signifies "a 
bought slave," "a servant" and always has this one mean- 
ing; while the word Sauheer, signifies "a hired servant." 
These two words in Hebrew answer to the Greek words 
Doulos and Misthotos, the first signifying "a servant, the 
property of another," the second signifying '-a hired man" 
and expresses the reward paid for his service. Doulos 
always occurs in translating Ebed, and never as the trans- 
lation of Saukeer. The Hebrew Ebed occurs some 700 
times in the Old Testament, and is rendered in the Greek 
Bible by Doulos 306, by the word Pais, a boy, often by 
the word oiketes, a household servant, 28 times, but is not 
one time rendered by the Misthotos, a hired servant. — 
Showing that in all cases where the word servant occurs 
in our Bible it signifies a slave, the property of another, 
♦'one born in his house, or bought with his money." And 
whenever they designed to express a hired servant, they 
used a word expressing that fact alone. Then Job, the 
most pious and distinguished man of all the East, was a 
slaveholder; yet our pious Abolitionists of the north would 
not commune with him. Could his three friends and 
miserable comforters have been abolitionists, that the}'- 
laboured so hard to prove Job a hypocrite, till God inter- 
posed and declared him to be a true christian, and they in 
error? 

The next most distinguished Patriarch is Abraham, with 
whom God made the covenant, and in whose house first set 
up his visible church. Now Abraham had "three hundred 
and eighteen servants born in his house and bought with 
his money," the only kind of servants known in our south- 



16 

em States. Would these pious souls of America have 
communed with Abraham the father of the faithful, whom 
God took into the church with his own pure hands, and 
gave him the true seal of the covenant, and made him all 
the promises? To carry out the Abolition sentiments of 
this day, the venerable father of all the faithful, the disin- 
terested, hospitable, and noble specimen of an ancient 
gentleman, who entertained angels and conversed with 
God, would be cast out of the church, and men wise in 
their own eyes and famed for cant, would refuse even to 
eat with him, who was honored with angels as his guests, 
and the great Jehovah as his friend. I need not detain you 
to cite all the examples given of servitude among the patri- 
aichi. One more fact may suffice on this point. Take 
the case of Hagar, Sarah's maid, who run away from her 
mistress, and was met by the angel of the Lord, who was 
no other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself; the angel so 
far from telling her to go on down into Egypt or Arabia, 
commanded her to go back home and be subject to her 
mistress. The words are, " And when Saiai dealt 
hardly with her, she fled from her face, and the angel of 
the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilder- 
ness, by a fountain in the way to Shur. And he said 
Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence earnest thou? and whither 
wilt thou go? And she said I flee from the face of my 
mistress Sarai. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, 
Return to thy mistress and submit thyself under her 
hands." Gen. 16,6— 9. 

This was the character of the teaching of Christ in pa- 
triarchal times. Has Christ changed his religion? If not, 
such is now the teaching of God's word, as we shall see 
from the example of Paul sending Onesimus home to his 
master Philemon in the days of Christ. But abolitionists 
teach the very reverse of all this, and encourage slaves to 
run away from their masters, and refuse to restore them 
when found. Can they be consistent christians? 

H. Under the Jewish dispensation we find the subject of 
slavery fully provided for, and the most explicit regulations 



17 

concerning it laid down. These regulations refer always 
either to Hebrew servitude or servitude from the heathen 
round about them. When God separated the Jews from 
all other nations he gave them laws peculiar to themselves, 
and yet the Jewish law in regard to slavery continued 
much as it was in the patriarchal age, and as it did in the 
days of Christ. See Ex. 21, 2. "If thou buy a Hebrew ser- 
vant, (Ebed) six years shall he serve, and in the seventh 
shall he go out free for nothing. And if the servant 
shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my chil- 
dren, I will not go out free, then his master shall bring him 
unto the Judges, he shall also bring him unto the door-post 
and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and 
he shall serve him forever^ Thus we find an official, 
legal act for perpetual slavery. Moreover, all the children 
were kept in perpetual bondage, for the law says. "If the 
master have given him a wife, and she has borne him sons 
and daughters, the wife and her children shall be her mas- 
ters, and he shall go out by himself." Here we find the 
foundation of the Justinian code fully recognized ^'Parltis 
sequiiur venirem,''^ the children go by the mother, a slave 
mother perpetuates the children in slavery. This all 
refers to Hebrew servitude, which thus became perpetual. 
When we turn to the servants taken from the heathen the 
law is still more explicit. Leviticus 25, 44, 46, "Both 
thy bond.nen and thy bondmaids which thou shalt have 
shall be of the heathen round about thee, of them shall ye 
buy bondmen and bondmaidens. Moreover from the chil- 
dren of the stranger that sojourneth among you, of them 
shall ye buy, and of the families that are with you, which 
they beget in your land, and they shall be your possession. 
And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children 
after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be 
your bondmen forever, but over your brethren, the children 
of Israel, ye shall not rule with rigor." Note three 
things, viz: 

1. This law clearly teaches that they might buy and 
hold as slaves forever the heathen nations. 

2* 



18 

2. They could will them to their children as an inheri- 
tance as property in perpetuity. 

3. These are called ''ebedim,'* slaves emphatically, who 
were born in their house, and bought with their money, 
and willed from father to son. 

Now 1 ask any reasonable man to say, if there is any 
other slavery known at the South, but such as is here de- 
scribed? AH the slaves in America are bought, born at 
home, or inherited, all three of which are named as lawful 
and proper among the chosen people of God under the 
Mosaic dispensation. 

But there is another argument of great force to which 
we ask your attention. The tenth and fourth precepts of 
the moral law clearly imply the existence of slavery at the 
time they v/ere given, and in all time to come. "Remem- 
ber the Sabbath day to keep it holy, six days shalt thou 
labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath 
of the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt not do any work, 
thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter; thy 7nan servant nor 
thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, &c." Then in the tenth 
commandment, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's 
house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man 
servant, nor his ?naid servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor 
any thing that is thy neighbors." This law shall never 
cease while the world stands, heaven and earth shall fail 
before one jot or titile shall pass away. But this shows also, 
that slavery may exist as long as man shall live on earth, 
as long as the Sabbath may last or man be covetous. — 
This law clearly legislates for slavery, takes it lor granted, 
and teaches the duty of all in their several places and 
relations in life. How any sane mind can deny that the 
Bible tolerates slavery while the 4lh and 10th command- 
ments are in the decalogue we cannot conceive. The whole 
Jewish dispensation contemplated the existence of slavery, 
and made full provisions for it. 

III. The christian dispensation, under which we live, 
commenced when slavery was almost universal among the 
Komans and other nations. 



19 

Paulus Emilius brought 150,000 captives from his wars 
in Epirus, and sold them into slavery for prize money for 
his soldiers. Julius Csesar took a half million of human 
beings in his Gallic wars and sold them into slavery. — 
Trajan made 10,000 captive gladiators fight in view of 
the Roman people. Might he not have preserved their 
lives and kept them in slavery far more humanely? In 
Atica among the highly cultivated and intellectual Greeks, 
while there were 120,000 citizens, there were 400,000 slaves. 
In Sparta there were 150,000 citizens, and 500.000 slaves. 
In Rome nearly all manual labor was peformed by slaves. 
Single masters are reported to have had as many as 10,- 
000, or even 20,000 slaves at once. Gibbon records that 
about the time of the christian era ihere m'ght be a slave 
for every freeman throughout the whole of the provinces 
of the Roman empire. Blair calculates that at the same 
time, in Italy, there were three times as many slaves as 
freemen. Now if these things be true, why did not Christ 
and his apostles act the same parts in the Roman and 
Grecian provinces that the abolitionists are acting in this 
country? Were they less conscientious and faithful in the 
discharge of their duties? Had they less courage, and 
zeal for the honor of God? Did they have less humanity 
and love for their suffering brethren? Unless these ihings 
be true, then we conclude, that if the disciples of Christ 
were now living in our Northern States they would act as 
Paul did in sending home Onesimus, and in teaching 
servants all their duties. We have the right to conclude that 
the so called friends of humanity in our country are decei- 
ving themselves with a zeal without knowledge, running 
on errands where they have never been sent, and minding 
other men's affairs to their own hurt. That they are delu- 
ded men rather to be pitied than reasoned with, fanciful 
castle builders, who would take the government of the 
country, and the church out of the hands of God, and es- 
tablish a new order of things. We are willing, hov/ever, to 
seek for the old paths where is the good way of our pious fa- 
thers and to walk therein, that we may find rest for our souls. 



20 

So that Christ and his Apostles came in contact with it 
dally, and doubtless taught on this subject, as well as all 
others, the whole duty of man. In the New Testament, 
as in the Old, we have two words distinct and clearly de- 
fined; the one, Doulos, signifying " a servant, the proper- 
ty of another," as Ebed did in the Old Testament. This 
word occurs in the New Testament 125 times, always 
signifying servant. The other word, " e/w/Aeros," a free- 
man, is used as its opposite, so that the two are in contrast, 
just as we in English say freeman and hondman. Take 
an example: John 8, 34 — " He that commiteth sin is the 
servant (doulos) of sin. but if the son make you free ye 
shall be free indeed," Elutheros. 

Again, Rom. 6, 17: " Ye were the servants (douloi) of 
sin — being then free from sin ye became the servants of 
righteousness. The contrast here is clearly marked. So 
2, Peter, 2, 19, " While they promise you liberty, (eluthe- 
ria) they are themselves the slaves (douloi) of corruption." 

1 Cor. 7, 21, " Art thou called being a servant, (doulos) 
care not lor it; but if thou mayest be free (elutheros) use 
it rather." These two v/ords are thus contrasted through- 
out the New Testament. The great definiteness manifest 
in the use of the terms servant, hired servant, and free- 
man, is worthy of special notice by all intelligent Bible 
readers. 

It is also worthy of notice, that neither Christ or his fol- 
lowers the Apostles, at any time interfered with the existing 
relations of master and servant, but in all cases, taught 
the relative duties of both master and servant, just like 
they taught the relative duties of husbands and wives, and 
parents and children ; and what is remarkable too, taught 
all these duties in the same passages of scripture. See, 
for example, Eph. 6 chapter. Col. 3, 4 chapter, Titus, 2 
chapter. 1 Cor. 7, 20-4, " Let every man abide in the 
same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called being 
a servant, care not for it, but if thou mayest be free use 
it rather. For he that is called being a sers'ant is the 
Lord's freeman, likewise he that is called being free, iff 



21 

Christ's servant. Brethren, let every man wherein he is 
called therein abide with Gcd." This shows the gospel 
so far from interfering with existing relations, qualifies men 
lo fill their various relations with greater propriety and 
usefulness. 

Paul in writing to the Ephesians, after teaching the du- 
ties of all other Christians, especially of husbands and 
wives, thus speaks of servants: "Servants, be obedient 
to them that are masters according to the flesh, with 
fear and trembling in singleness of your heart as unto 
Christ. Not with eye service as men pleasers, but as 
the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. 
With good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men. 
Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth the 
same shall he receive of the Lord wheUier he be bond or free. 

And ye masters, do the same thing to them, forbearing 
threatening, knowing that ye also have a master in heaven, 
neither is there any respect of persons with him.'^ Eph. 
6. 5-6. 

Could the duties of servants be more fully and emphati- 
cally taught, could stronger motives be offered to make 
faithful, obedient, aud upright servants? This is the ten- 
dency of the religion of Christ upon all classes of men, 
to make them more faithful, cheerful and useful. 

The same duty is taught in Col. 3, 22, in these words: 
*' Servants obey in all things your masters according to 
the flesh, not with eye service as men pleasers, but in 
singleness of heart fearing God. And whatsoever ye do, 
do it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto man, knowing 
that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheri- 
tance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth 
wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done, and 
there is no respect of persons." 

Again, in Titus, 2, 9, " P'xhort servants to be obedient 
to their own masters, and to please them well in all things, 
not answering again. Not purloining, (i. e. stealing se- 
cretly) but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn 
the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things," 



22 

Such sentiments preached daily to our servants would 
make them tar better servants, better men, and much hap- 
pier for time and eternity, and relieve masters from a 
world of trouble. This was the teaching of Paul. 

Once more: 1 Peter, 2, 18, "Servants be subject to 
your masters with all fear, not only to the good and 
gentle but also to the froward. For this is thank- 
worthy, if a man for conscience sake towards God endure 
grief suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if when 
ye be buffeted for your faults ye take it patiently, but if 
when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this 
is acceptable with God." Here duty to the worst of mas- 
ters is enjomed from a principle of conscience, and the 
most powerful motive offered to mduce obedience. What 
could be more noble and better calculated to make good 
subjects of any government or family? 

The most comprehensive and conclusive passage is 
found in 1 Tim. 6, 1-5, " Let as many servants as are 
under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all 
honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blas- 
phemed. And they that have believing masters, let them 
not despise them because they are brethren; but rather do 
them service because they are faithful beloved partakers 
of the benefit. These things teach and exhort. If any 
man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, 
he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions 
and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, 
evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt 
minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is 
godliness, from such withdraw thy self." 

This passage contains my creed on the subject of sla- 
very, and gives a full description of the men from whom 
we should withdraw. This comes nearer to the dootrine 
of withdrawing from a union with all abolitionists and re- 
sisters of the fugitive slave law, than is taught any where 
else, and teaches clearly our duty in reference to the inter- 
minable doters about questions of strife and excitement. 

Thus we have shown that slavery was fully recognized 



2S 

and tolerated in the three great periods of the Church, iii 
the patriarchal, the Jewish and the Christian dispensations, 
and the duties taught them as fully as the duty of children 
and subjects. 

The same is true of all other nations, if the facts of 
history are to be relied on. All slavery has resulted from 
mail's own siii, depravity and folly, and may be traced to 
the following causes, viz: 

I To V/ar ; 2 Crime; 3 Deht. It was the old univer- 
sal notion, that all captives taken in war were at the mercy 
of the conqueror, he could put them to death, or preserve 
them alive for slaves as he chose. Hence when the Ro- 
mans preserved their captives taken in war, they called 
them " servi,'' the preserved ones, hence our English 
word servant. This has been the most fruitful source of 
slavery. It begun early and still continues in all heathen 
countries. 

Xenophen says, " It was a law established from time 
immemorial among the nations of antiquity, to oblige those 
to undergo the severities of servitude whom victory had 
thrown into their hands." 

Homer, both in the Odyssey and Iliad, shows that the 
practice of making slaves of captives taken in war, exis- 
ted in Egypt, the Egean Islands, and on the continent of 
Europe among the Greeks and other nations before the 
Trojan war. 

Clarkson says, " As other States arose, this custom is 
discovered to have existed among them, it travelled over 
all Asia, spread through Europe in the Grecian and Ro- 
man world, was found among the barbarians that subver- 
ted the Roman Empire. Then we find it most fully re- 
cognized in the Justinian code." The Gibeonites were 
made slaves to Israel under Joshua in this way. 

Among the Hebrews, and indeed in many other nations, 
men sold themselves or were sold for debt, and thus be- 
came slaves and entailed it upon their families, as may be 
seen in the history of villains of the middle ages, and the 
serfs of Europe. 



24 

Others, again, were sold for crime and banished, as the 
l^nghsh send men now to Botany Ba3^ 

No fact is more clearly manifest from history than that 
slavery in some form has existed in all ages of the world 
since the fall of man; and will likely continue on earth till 
the world shall become a new heaven and a new earth, 
filled with righteousness, truth and justice. 

Since God in his providence has placed them here, let 
us take care of the trust committed to us, let us act wisely 
and faithfully towards them, and not ruin our country and 
both races by the folly of the abolitionists and disunionists. 
The man who would resist the fugitive slave law is as 
great an enemy to his country, as the man who withdraws 
i'rom the Union because of the admission of California. 

Many speak of "the higher law" which makes it their 
duty to resist the laws of Congress. What law can be 
higher than the law of God? which says, "Let every soul 
be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power 
but of God, the powers that be are ordained by God. 
Whosoever therefore, resislath the power, resisteth the 
ordinance of God; and they that visit shall receive to 
themselves damnation." Rom. 13, 1 — 2. No man can 
be a christian who refuses to be a law-abiding man. No 
man has the right to take upon himself the character of a 
judge and to decide upon the constitutionality of the laws 
of Congress. The Supreme Court of the United States 
alone must decide all these questions. That is the proper 
tribunal, and to that decision all good citizens must bow, 
or there is an end of government. There is neither 
rhyme nor reason in the course pursued by the disunion- 
ists north and south. The fugitive slave law has been 
virtually in operation since 1783, the last Congress only 
added the completing clause, which should always have 
been there to make it consistent. So that, it has been 
virtually decided, by the Supreme Court, to be constitu- 
tional, times without number. The man who would now 
resist it, resists both the ordinance of God, and the righ- 
teous laws of his own country, and deserves to be dealt 



25 

with accordingly. The admission of California on the 
other hand and the acts complained of by southern dis- 
unionists, are perfectly consistent with the constitutional 
rights of all the parties concerned, or, if they are not, let 
the Supreme Court decide them otherwise, and then, and 
not till then, has any man the right even to hint at a refusal 
to disobey them. Whatever the men of the world may do, 
no christian, and especially no Presbyterian, with our 
excellent standards in his hand, can talk of disunion, un- 
der present circumstances, without renouncing the first 
principles of his religion and his church. When our gov- 
ernment shall forsake the constitution and attempt to tram- 
ple upon our vested rights, and take away our civil and 
religious liberty, then no people would be more ready to 
resist usurpation and declare for revolution than Presbyte- 
rians; but even then we would take the ground of the right 
of all people to resort to revolution to maintain their rights, 
as we did in our immortal declaration of rights. Abide 
by our laws and our most excellent constitution we must, 
we can, we will. 

V. The last point to which we invite your attention is, 
that God in his providence has permitted the present agita- 
tion of our country for the purpose of developing to the 
world the power and strength of our government, that the 
deep-seated love, the wide-spread attachment of our people 
for the Union might be shown forth. What noble disin- 
terestedness, and love of country have already been dis- 
played by the leading men of both parties in Congress. 
Who can help admiring the patriotic stand taken by Gen- 
eral Cass, the North-western star of the Senate, who has 
thus written his name high on the scroll of his country's 
fame, and shall be rewarded by her sons. W^e need only 
name on the same side such men as Foote and King, and 
Douglass and Dickinson, as specimens of noble disinteres- 
tedness, men who rising above the shackles of party have 
sought the safety and welfare of their country. While on 
the other side, without seeming invidious, we may allude 
only to two, and your better information will supply the 

3 



26 

rest, both of whom have honored their race and themselves, 
and embalmed their deeds and memories in the hearts of 
their countrymen. The one, the great defender of the consti- 
tution, the Ajax of American freedom, the man whose fame 
has been wafted round the world by his countrymen, 
"whose march is on the mountain wave, whose home is on 
the sea," has gathered a fresh wreath of laurels to adorn 
his brow. The Star of the East has shone with a brighter 
lustre in its decline than at its zenith, and thus fully de- 
monstrated his title to a place among the ranks of men, 
who approach nearest to angeUc intellects. But brightest 
amid the galaxy of bright stars in our American firmament 
shines the Star of the West, the orator of the worlds the 
mediator in all times of political danger, the man of soul, 
patriotism and philanthropy, Curtiuslike at the head of 
the noble thirteen, threw himself into the breach, and re- 
ceived into his own throbbing bosom, and upon his hoary 
head, all the shafts of venom, and the poisoned arrows 
from the sullen men of the north, and the fiery darts of the 
furious spirits of the south, until he had quenched them all 
by his shield of fidelity and kindness, and pared them off 
by his lofty bearing and burning eloquence. Thus the 
polar star of the North-west, the star in the East or New 
England, the star in the West, and the several burning 
lights constituting the Pleiades of the South, have all shed 
their concentrated, clear light upon our country in her 
darkest hour, and guided her safely through the storm". — 
Brethren have we not cause for thankfulness in view of 
these facts? Should we not recognize the hand of God in 
this deliverance? Does he not reign in the councils ot our 
country and turn the hearts of men as the streams of the 
South? Dead, indeed, must be the soul of that American 
citizen whose heart does not swell with gratitude on this 
day. If this agitation shall continue to develope such 
heroic deeds as have already been manifest in Congress, 
and if it shall jostle and agitate the two great political par- 
ties, until a greater union party shall be formed of the 
choice men of the country, to rebuke disunionists both in 



27 

north and south, it will prove a lasting blessing to our 
country, and all future generations. Every wave of such 
agitation only serves to waft us higher on the rock of ages, 
and to settle the foundation of our constitution upon a 
more immovable basis. As the winds and storms of hea- 
ven serve to loosen the roots of the mighty oaks that they 
may grow the better, so these political storms cause the 
great tree of liberty to strike its roots deeper, spread its 
branches wider, and bring forth more abundant fruit and 
foliage to refresh the nations reposing beneath its shade. 
The present agitation, however, we believe will be seen 
ultimately to have been gotten up chiefly by demagogues 
who live on excitement, and who hope to be so magnified 
as to be seen by their countrymen. The great mass of the 
people of this union have never been moved, the sturdy 
yeomanry of the country are not excited, they cannot be 
shaken from their steadfastness. Let the day be appoin- 
ted to divide this union, and you will see them pour in 
from every hill and valley throughout the length and 
breadth of the land, asking with anxious looks, "What 
are these men at Washington going to do with this Union, 
this rich inheritance from our fathers?" I may illustrate 
this point by a fact said to have taken place in Virginia. 
In the mountains of Virginia lives a venerable man of God, 
who has long been pastor of the same church, until he has 
baptised in their infancy most of the members of his 
church, afterwards received them into communion, and 
married them, and is emphatically a father in Israel. — 
Sometime since a few of the fasionables of his congregation 
concluded that they would like to get rid of the old minis- 
ter, and get a more fashionable preacher to suit the taste 
of the age. The congregation were invited to meet oma. 
stated day for this purpose. When the day came, hours 
before the time appointed, all the roads, lanes, alleys and 
avenues leading to the church were seen crowded with 
men and women making their way to the house of God. 
There might be seen old, plain, sturdy farmers, with their 
carefully preserved Sunday hats and coats, venerable ma- 



trons with their antique bonnets and shawls, young married 
couples, with middle aged men and women, all wending 
their way to the church, each asking with more than anx- 
ious looks, ^^What are they going to do loith Father Mcll- 
haneyl What is to he done with Father McIlhaneyV 
When the hour of meeting came, the disunionists with 
their resolutions all cut and dried came, and found, to their 
great astonishment, every aisle and seat so crowded that 
they were unable even to get into the house, while the ever 
repeated question "What are they going to do with Father 
Mcllhaney?" so astounded them that they fled in utter 
consternation without even reading the resolutions for the 
dissolution. And Father Mcllhaney still preaches to his 
old church. 

Just so it will be when the day comes to divide this 
Union. Thousands of patriotic souls will come pouring 
in from the hills, plains, and vaUies of this great and 
beautiful country, asking with anxious countenances, and 
thrilling anxiety, " What are you going to do loith this 
Union? What is to he done with our Constitution, this 
rich legacy of our fathersV At the very sound of this 
question and the determined looks of the men asking it, 
every disunionist will be confounded, not one of them will 
ever be able to read the resolution for the dissolution of 
this Union. Their very tongues will cleave to the roof of 
their mouths and their right hands forget their cunning. 
This Union cannot be dissolved. The spirit of the Purt- 
tans and the Huguenots, the spirit of Washington and the 
men of seventy six, will reappear from all parts of this ex- 
tended country, frown upon the spirit of misrule, and 
preserve our institutions from the Goths and Vandals who 
would destroy them. 

Biethren, children of the noble Puritans, the ardent 
Huguenots, and the sturdy men of Holland, show your- 
selves to be the true sons of your worthy sires, be stead- 
fast, be decided, trust in the God of your fathers, do your 
duty, and your country is safe beneath the shadow of the 
Almighty. "The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice." 

Amen, 



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